Here is the finished portrait of Allison's beautiful daughters!   I had forgotten to post an update about this before:



This last week, I spent about 3 days deep cleaning a storage room (also known as the "junk room", because we usually stick things in there when we don't know what to do with it! lol). It's still not completely finished, but I did take a load of things to the dump, and will be going soon to take a second load (plus, boxes of stuff have been taken to the Salvation Army).   There were so many things in that room that we didn't need.   Stuff REALLY accumulates when you're not paying attention to it!

I am sure that part of the reason I just got the sudden urge to clean this room out probably has something to do with the "nesting" phase of pregnancy, but  the main reason is that Bonnie has been wanting to paint a lot, so I wanted to give her a place to paint where she could have more freedom.    Usually, I let her paint in the kitchen, but no matter how careful she is, she usually gets some paint on the floor (so her opportunities to paint are limited).  I decided that if I clean this little room out, and line the floor with plastic...she can paint to her heart's content in there.    I would have loved something like that when I was a little girl!  

Hopefully, within the next few days, it will be cleaned out completely and ready for her to begin having fun!

Speaking of painting, I am getting ready to get started with painting the welcome sign for our city!       We don't have much time before the baby is here (the due date is in April!), so it is very important that we get started as quickly as possible!   

Tomorrow, I should be hearing from the mineral paint company to get an estimate on how much the paint will cost for the entire project.  As soon as we know, we will order the paint.   The city will be paying to have someone sandblast the whole surface of the wall (89 ft long by 17 ft tall) with baking soda, so that the paint is entirely removed first (without this step, the mineral paint would not be able to bond to the surface of the wall...this is crucial to make sure that the paint will last for over a century).   Then my husband is going to take off work and will be priming the entire wall for me, so that I don't have to do that part!    Isn't that nice?   

After that is done, I will be painting the "Welcome" sign somewhere in the middle of the wall, between the obstacles which are there (air conditioning vents and a sign for the laundry cleaners).  The mural size itself will only be about 30 ft long and 11 ft high (still will be my largest mural ever!).  

Here is what the building I am going to be painting looks like:


And with photoshop, I was able to create a rough idea of what the painting should end up looking like when finished-  The wall surrounding the mural will be painted white.    This wasn't my original idea for the painting, of course (since the other one would take me much longer to complete and I don't have enough time!) .... but this will be a great first project- and I should be (hopefully) able to complete it before April!    I am VERY excited and can't wait to get started.